Golf Ball Selection

Golf Balls For Optimal Games

The engineering of golf balls is a marvel of modern science. Fortunately, you don't have to be a physicist to know what ball will serve your game.

Most duffers will want a bucket of cheap 1-piece balls for practice. Made of less expensive materials and using simpler construction, they offer reasonable durability and moderate flight character. They won't last forever. They'll get nicked and dented more readily than others. They won't fly the farthest. A more expensive ball will travel a greater distance for the same impact energy and angle.

But, for driving practice especially in areas where the ball is likely to wind up in water or impenetrable forest, they are perfect. Low-cost, their characteristics are good enough that most of your effort devoted to improving speed, angle, contact point and other key elements of your stroke will not be wasted.

X-out balls will do for most golfers, at least a part of the time. Containing slight flaws from manufacturing errors, they make good practice material.

If you lose a few, you won't mind. If you damage them prematurely, they're cheap enough that you don't need to care. If they fall a little short of the maximum possible distance, it doesn't matter. Your club angle, where you make contact, arc speed and other factors will play a much larger role and you'll do even better when you switch to a better ball.

Get some practice with the ball you will use in regular play, though.

A 2-piece is a good compromise. Durable, yet still moderate cost, they're made of Surlyn covers over a solid core. That gives them good characteristics for most golfers' games. But once you've reached a littler higher level, you'll want to consider a 3-piece golf ball.

A 3-piece can be made in different ways, but typically offers a Surlyn cover over a layer or elastic wrap that surrounds a central core. They provide very good control, maximum distance and smooth flight. They're also very hard to destroy, able to withstand a thousand hits without significant denting or slicing.

In order to fine-tune your game, both long and short, it's helpful to spend ample time with the ball you would use in regular play. That's especially true of the short game where accuracy and the feel of the ball are most important. A good ball that is 2, 3 or 4-piece will all drive well. The fine details show up most in the short game.

Compression ratings play a small part, but anything that is within the standard 60, 80, 90 ratings will do well for just about everyone. Personal taste plays the largest role here, with softer balls preferred by some and harder by others. The impact and flight character is actually much less sensitive to this number than you might suspect, at least for most golfers. It takes a lot of practice to judge the difference and have it affect your game significantly.

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